November 2013

Plant and project managers have limited time to wade through the volumes of jargon, terminology, and new processes and equipment associated with key security issues.

Targeted cyber attacks are increasing, and the attackers’ methods are evolving to evade or circumnavigate existing countermeasures. To explore a threat-led risk model, the key elements must be examined.

Among the professional, trade and administrative personnel required to operate a refinery or petrochemical facility—managers, engineers, electricians, pipefitters, machinists, accountants, admini..

Any facility dealing with bulk hydrocarbons must monitor safety conditions at all times. A leak of flammable or toxic material can occur at any time, and explosion is an ever-present threat when combu..

By using timely alarms that lead an operator to corrective actions, the goals are to improve plant safety, to increase efficiency and to reduce environmental constraint limit violations.

The impact of jet fires on process equipment is critical, and it is important to examine possible design considerations that can mitigate many of the jet fire consequences.

For any person working in the oil and gas industry who is responsible for the safety of employees, colleagues, plant equipment and property, one of the most potentially confusing aspects in providing ..

Up to 50% of the refinery’s entire corrosion expense may occur in the crude unit. The root causes of the fouling and corrosion issues are often linked to the basic unit configuration choices, as ..

The solvent-recovery section of the deoiling unit for wax production consumes substantial energy. In this study, the effects of operating conditions (pressure), energy consumption and cost, and proces..

The Natref oil refinery in Sasolburg, South Africa, had experienced refractory problems in the sulfur recovery unit’s (SRU’s) combustion chamber since startup (Fig. 1). Even though the SRU w..

Earlier in the year, the author attended a series of client and organizers’ presentations at the 2013 TapRooT Summit in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. TapRooT is a structured failure analysis and trouble..

Asset-intensive industries continue to suffer from unplanned downtime, failure to meet planned production rates, and too many safety and environmental incidents. Until companies can manage and mitigat..

Canada is the world’s third-largest producer of natural gas, with a gross annual output of 6.4 trillion cubic feet. The vast majority of Canada’s natural gas production derives from conventi..

Many reliability engineers trained before IEC 61508 know the acronym MTTR as “mean time to repair.” I certainly learned that definition. Naturally, I think of the time it takes to repair som..

The increased availability of natural gas supplies are redefining energy conditions. New natural gas reserves are shifting the order for producing nations. Shale gas reserves, once difficult to extrac..

ClearSign marks NOx reduction milestoneClearSign Combustion Corp. has cost-effectively reduced NOx to a record-setting 3 ppm. The results indicate that ClearSign’s technology may overcome many of..

LNG terminal to be built in Uruguay GDF Suez has signed a 15-year contract with Gas Sayago for LNG storage and regasification services in Uruguay. Commercial operation of the new terminal is expected ..

Nigeria lost at least 100,000 bpd of oil, around 5% of total output, in the first quarter of 2013 to theft from its onshore and swamp operations alone, a new Chatham House report estimates. This illic..

Demand for water treatment chemicals in the US is forecast to rise 3.2% per year to $6.7 billion in 2017. Gains will reflect not only healthy growth in the oil, gas and mining industries and a rebound..

The economic and employment contributions from US unconventional oil and gas production are now being felt throughout the US economy, increasing household incomes, boosting trade and contributing to a..

Solution speeds up alarm rationalization and improves regulatory compliance CVE, the revolutionary geometric process control solution from Process Plant Computing Ltd. (PPCL), is reportedly helpi..

Petrochemical industry news covers legislation, technologies and more Mettler Toledo has more than 30 years of experience designing and developing solutions for the petrochemical industry. With i..

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